parasitegirl | They Learn!

Narcing: an update.

Today I returned to the school where I’d had to end a class early and narc in a 2^nd grade teacher for lack of preparation and cooperation.

The grade of the day was 1^st graders . The third class of the day would be observed by visiting educators. I’d also made sure that the third period class would be taught by the most confident teacher in the group.

I was only worried about the second period class. First semester I’d had two very bad classes with the 2^nd-2 teacher. Twice in a row she hadn’t prepared and would often translate my English into Japanese. Both times I attempted to remind her to not translate she ignored the hint, when I tried again she’d started arguing with me, in front of her students (in Japanese) about how English was too hard without the translations. Her bad behaviour culminated in her telling me (in Japanese) that a student was stupid and couldn’t pay attention when I spent extra time with an ADHD kid (who WAS grasping things quickly) and me having slightly harsh words with her after class…that was first semester. I’m pretty sure the second time I worked with her I left my two Japanese speeches about WHY I ask for no translation and WHY teacher attitude is important on her desk…but I can’t remember.

Today, after first period, I asked the first period teacher to go talk to the second period teacher to explain to her what they class had been like and give advice about anything she’d found difficult. The second period teacher made sure to come get me for second period instead of sending her students (she was the only one who came by herself…but also the only one who needed to). Before we left the teacher room I asked if she had any questions and she didn’t.

She was obviously nervous but prepared to try this time. Before we got to the class she put her game face on. She introduced me properly and class started. While I let the students in a song she was obviously reviewing the class plan but, as the students were watching me this was ok.. She didn’t look nervous in front of the students.

As I taught she made the clear (but good) choice about how she was going to survive. She would join the students and do the class with them. If a teacher isn’t ready to interact with me I encourage them to be a “student leader” and model good student behavior.

She barely spoke, but she participated with the students and didn’t send them out her usual “oh, fuck, ENGLISH!!” vibes. I think she saw that the all English format wasn’t too hard for the students when she just gave them a chance and watched me as a student.

I rarely play “Fruit Basket” with students, only 1^st graders get the two games I hate (Karuta and Fruit Basket) because 1^st graders still love those games. I usually ask the teacher not play the “Animal Basket” with us so that she can help the student who is “It” (I join in the game so I can offer to switch places if a child is freaking out) but because this teacher had already grabbed an animal card to play, and was obviously most comfortable playing but not helping, I modified things a bit to keep her from feeling uncomfortable.

When class was over I thanked her privately for preparing, for being a good model for her students, and for not translating. I reminded her that in the future she COULD use Japanese when dealing with problem students (as long as it’s not to explain or translate what I am saying) but that everyone seemed to be (mostly) well behaved today so it wasn’t an issue.

Yay!

As for the class under observation, that teacher joined in the teacher role and everything went well…except when a cockroach ran past the observers and into the students…things were a bit chaotic for a few minutes before the roach was dispatched.